Epilogue
by EarnestInBerlin
Summary: Who did Rikou meet when he opened the door?
1. Chapter 1

Epilogue:

Starting tomorrow, Kei's mommy and daddy are going to live separately in terms of the law. That is what you call a divorce.

Kei's mommy decided Kei would be staying with her, so that means Kei has to leave her home town and settle somewhere else. And that would also mean leaving her friends.

Rephrase that: that would mean leaving her _friend_.

Between you and me, Kei doesn't really like the idea especially when it means leaving someone _very_ special.

There was a loud tapping on the door before it opened, and without Kei and her friend's consent. The trespasser was a woman and she very well happens to be Kei's mom.

"Kei, what're you still doing here!" she asked in a exasperated voice, exasperated because she had spent the last few minutes looking for her child when they could've used those precious dwindling minutes going to the airport.

Kei held the hand of another boy, who is her friend. Her only friend, by the way

He looked up in surprise at the woman that had just burst through the door of their supposedly 'secret base'.

Not very secret now, huh?

"Kei, let's go, we have a plane to catch!" she latch on to her child's hand.

"But I don't want to go!" Kei tried pulling back from the firm grasp of her mother's fingers, "I want to stay here with-"

But of course, she was just a kid and most of the decisions are left for the grown up to think over so… Kei doesn't have much of a say in the matter, if you think about it, which is kind of sad. And besides, those darn plane tickets are expensive.

"Kei, you know you can't stay with daddy anymore" the woman tried to explain softly, but the clock was ticking away so fast "Now please, don't be disobedient"

She stole a glance at her best friend as she got pulled away of their place.

The boy couldn't say anything as he followed them out.

Kei called out his name once and twice.

And he called her name, too.

As Kei got pulled away from their hide away, he knew he have to say something.

And before he knew it he was already screaming out to Kei's form as it got a good distance between him now.

"Kei!" And there were tears falling down his face, but he realized that later. Maybe he'll deny it when he goes home later, but he's not denying it now. Boys are really complex creatures.

Kei looked back and her small features were scrutinized into a babyish look of despair, "I'll be waiting! I'll be waiting right here for you to come back, all right?"

Never mind that he looked ridiculous with his phlegm dripping down his nose along with them were the tears that streamed down his eyes as he forced himself to keep a straight face.

Kei could only look back and murmur her playmate's name as he screamed those words.

"You have to come back! Promise me you'll come back Kei!" he continued, "If you don't, I'll get mad and hate you for it!"

And as she got into the car, she kept looking back at the form of her only friend from the back. His face was dirty and he still hasn't stopped crying. The boy even tried trailing them but that only got him exhausted. And in the end, he resigned to falling down on his knees as he watched her away.

Her tears kept falling. And it didn't really matter now as the gap between two of them got all the wider as the car got faster.


	2. Chapter 2

Epilogue One:

Rikou woke one morning to the unbearable heat of the morning sun and to the annoying call of the stupid birds outside his window. And also to the unending beep of his clock that won't stop unless he smash it off.

From beneath the mass bundle that was Rikou, his blanket, a couple of pillows; Rikou's arm shot out and his hand reached blindly for his digital alarm clock- knocking the lava lamp in the process. He felt his notes in History beneath his palm and beside it was his mobile but that was not what he was looking for and the beeping still wouldn't stop. As he finally felt his alarm, he punched the button to shut the thing up. After a few moments, he threw off the cover off his body and sat up straight. Rikou was normally an early riser, but last night had him wasting precious sleeping minutes to a computer screen, giving him only two hours of sleep left. He stretched his arms and yawned, then rubbed the sleepiness out of his eyes.

Unlike his other college classmates, his room was clean. Rikou hated seeing things in a mess. Everything in his room had a place, all his CDs were arranged alphabetically, pencils and stationary were kept in a drawer, books and manga were stacked neatly on shelves all arranged according to what volume number they belong. He reached below for his lava lamp and placed it back on his bedside table, yawning once again.

The raven haired youth reached for a shirt in his laundry pile. It was for temporary use, he'll change into a new one when he finally goes to bathroom to freshen up.

He slid out of his bed and folded his blanket and placed it along with his pillows neatly on top of his bed.

As he pulled out a towel from somewhere, he lazily headed for his small bathroom.

Rikou pulled of the already stinking shirt off of his body and pushed down his boxers. The towel that was hanging by his left shoulder he hung on to the towel holder outside of his small shower. He turned the knob for the water and the cold drops met his warm naked skin. His eyes were closed and his head faced heaven, two hands brushed his hair back, getting away the strands from his face.

A few minutes later, he was in a new shirt, wearing another clean pair of underwear and into pants that suited him.

He went to his little refrigerator that held nothing more than a few cans of beer, a few unopened potato chip bags and some ramen.

Rikou's hand didn't hesitate to take one of beer cans, then kicked the refrigerator door shut and opened the can.

The raven haired boy took down two gulps and went over to where his apartment keys lay. He grabbed them and went out of his lonely apartment, locking the four wall prison he subjected himself to. He walked solemn hallway that somehow achieved an air of creepiness over the years of being used by various people. The seventeen year old boy was almost at the stairs when he remembered his cell phone was left on top of his bedside table.

He jogged back to his apartment room and mentally smacked himself for his forgetfulness.

And in the middle of it, he felt the passing of wind turning cold.

Rikou stopped.

Rikou looked around the hallway.

He shook his head and went back to his apartment to retrieve his mobile phone.

"Good morning, Kakei-san" Rikou mumbled beneath his breath as he slid into the green apron with the drug store's logo.

"Good morning to you too, Himura-kun" Kakei replied with his arms crossed across his thin chest. The beautiful man flashed him a very friendly smile "Very nice of you to spend your summer break over here when you can be doing something instead like your peers"

"Yeah…" Rikou passed by Kakei and did his first job of making sure everything in the drugstore was in its proper place.

Over six items was in Rikou's arms- two bottles of sleeping pills, toothpaste, hair dye, lipstick and to his annoyance, a box of condoms- six items that Rikou must return to their proper places.

Sometimes, Rikou finds this task very troublesome but he was being paid to do this so might as well do the job that he signed up for.

This was just the start of his day.

When he got back to his apartment, he dropped himself on his bed and did what was the only thing he could do: stare at his ceiling.

Today at the drugstore was like every other day he spends at the drug store, long and boring. It seemed that nobody went in the place that day, save of course for the two high school girls that asked Rikou- obviously all giggling and high- where the cosmetics were when they were actually facing the whole shelf.

"Stupid girls…" he sat up and looked around at his apartment. He stood up and strides to where his books and manga were then began to look for that certain Death Note issue he recently bought. As he pulled out one book again and again, something fell to the floor. Bored green eyes looked down and stared at the thing that fell from its place, it was a white sheet of paper. Rikou rolled his eyes and went down to pick it up, only to realize that it wasn't a piece of paper at all- he was actually staring at the back of an old photo.

"What do we have here?" he says to the photo. He wasn't surprised at the scene he sees. This one was taken when he was still living with his mother. It was him in that picture, the boy with the big bouquet of flowers, helping his mother arrange them all up for costumers. His mother owned a flower shop then.

_Wonder what happened to that place now_, Rikou thought to himself as he slowly stood back up trying to remember much of that shop.

But his eyes never failed to notice the other participant in the picture. It was the body of a girl, but it wasn't his mother. The girl was a bit shorter than Rikou and had a very peculiar style of hair, short but a strand of golden locks left to outgrow the others on one side of his head. Wide green eyes stared at the boy in earnest delight as the girl herself was positioned on the pavement with a garland of fallen flowers in her tiny hands.

Rikou leaned against his table and stared at the picture, this was taken by his mother.

The girl's name, it was Kei. He remembers her.

"Kei…" he said, she was his best friend back then. A very annoying girl, as he remembers, gets into a trouble a lot and always needed Rikou to get her out. But even then, Rikou loves to be with Kei a lot.

In the photo, they were both around the age of five years old.

Not wanting to feel pathetically sentimental, he smirked and pushed the photo back inside a book.

The wind outside the window began to pick up and he stared outside. Feeling a bit cold, he went over and closed the window.

A/N: I didn't beta it or correct it or whatever… So see any mistakes forgive me…


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I had a reason for calling it like this, I lost it though…

Epilogue Two:

The definition of creepy in a dictionary would be explained with the words unnerving, scary or just plain eerie in its context. If one was to look it up with the big book of words, maybe they would come across an explanation that says: 'an informal term for unsettlement caused by either uneasiness or fright'.

Rikou doesn't know the definition of 'creepy' nor does he have a dictionary to confirm the statement above concerning the word. The raven-haired youth doesn't know what 'fear' is, exactly.

It wasn't that he's a fond holder of his badge of courage; fear never manifested itself in his character. Fright, terror, panic or any other synonyms that one could think of for the word was an unknown territory to the college boy.

Rikou stared out the window, he read the manga he was looking for and now it was left forgotten on his table.

Evenings; to describe him as an evening person, Rikou wasn't sure if he deserved the title. He likes watching the stars at evening, and he also loves to study the run of the moon as she tries to escape her morning sun husband's reach. It was thoughts like these that made his lips smile, a rare thing. It was also thoughts like these that somehow made him remember he was just a human being.

The radio behind his back murmured a song by some regurgitated boy band that won the population's temporary attention.

The boy, fortunately, was not part of the population that adores those four boys with their stupid clean cut hair styles. He would admit loneliness was the factor that provoked him to listen to another love song that's worth crap.

He sighed, and broke his gaze out the window. Beneath the blanket of the starry night, the tiny and not so tiny pinpoint lights of the city shone brightly to make the stars disappear at the back of their clouds. Rikou can't help but stare, for the umpteenth time, at everything that made up his current life. The trash that filled his waste can (two cans of beer), mini refrigerator that came with the place. He surveyed the books showing their spines at the opposite direction and not to forget, the table and his chair then the bed with his sheets and pillow.

It was times like these that had him questioning the direction in his life… if there is one to begin with.

He flipped through the pages of his comic book again and it only stoned down the fact that he was trying to deceive himself.

"Oh well… We always knew Raito was going to kill L…" was all that was said for the whole evening.

The sound of singing voices silenced, he didn't notice at first. When it was replaced by static he was unmoved. He lost transmission with that certain station, not like it never happened before.

He looked at his wristwatch; it was only half-past twelve. Strange, stations usually sign off at a later time.

…_Kou-chan…_

He snapped his head up.

…_Ri… chan…_

He stared at the radio, the moment he did, the melody of a singing pop song flooded the air. It was a woman's voice singing a song about lost love, Rikou heard the song before.

There was nothing wrong with that.

His brows were knitted together in confusion. It was just static, there wasn't a voice. There was never a voice. It was just a mass overlap of electricity gone wrong twirling around and round each other making out sounds that almost make one think of words.

The song was cut by the evening news.

"_Breaking news, earlier today departing flight # 332 from Blank Airport crashed. The cause of the crash is still unknown to officials; due to rough terrains, rescuers are having difficulties in looking for bodies of the victim." _

"_Authorities are desperately trying to confirm-"_

Rikou turned off the radio.

There were just some things not worth listening to.

"Rikou, have you heard the news the other day?" Kakei asked his only employee.

"Hm…"

"Poor things, I wouldn't want to die like that" he was smiling his most beautiful smile again. Rikou just shrugged his shoulders, he wasn't really paying very much attention to his boss, between the new Zero-Sum he has in his hands and the drabbles of the blond… Zero-Sum has a better appeal to him.

Kakei can never blame Rikou, nothing interesting ever happens in the shop. Nothing interesting ever happens in their lives.

He left Rikou with his manga, closing his office door to the raven haired one.

A day off, another rare thing in Rikou's summer break; for tomorrow and the day after that he doesn't need to go to the drugstore. His black t-shirt boldly declared 'Yuck Fou' at the ceiling as he sprawled lazily in bed with Zero-sum; his finger marked a page in between the fights of Genjo Sanzo and his nemesis.

Like Rikou's smile, a day off was something of value because of the fact that Kakei never gives them unless needed. And every year ever since he started college and spent his summer breaks at the drugstore, this was the first day off he's ever had.

He didn't smile to himself, which would be too novel like in his opinion. He just lies down on his bed and let out a yawn.

The round clock behind him tick-tocked until it died away at half-past midnight. Silence met Rikou, but he didn't bother detect the death of the time.

The sound of electric interference replaced the stillness in the room.

Rikou's eyes opened up wide and sat up straight.

The radio was changing stations on its own; the little screen showed him different numbers of stations.

…_ch…_

"What… the?"

…_an…_

Then it stopped at one station and the static didn't stop.

… _Ri…_

The numbers disappeared but not Rikou's surprise at the phenomena. After that, there were silence and no more static. Just he, the radio without the sounds and the manga in his hands were left behind.

Two rough knocks was on the door.

Rikou looked over to his door's direction. It kept knocking.

The boy shook his head and slowly he went off the bed.

He took the uncertain steps at the same time as the manga that he held in his hand unconsciously made contact with the floor. The little sound of a 'thud' can be heard.

The knockings didn't stop and Rikou's hand was a few inches to knob. Hesitation made it stay there.

The knocking was real, so there has to be someone on the other side.

He opened his hand and then closed, opened and finally closed around it.

Two words met him when he opened the door:

"Hi, Rikou!"


	4. Chapter 4

Epilogue Three:

"Hi, Rikou!"

And he found himself looking at Tsukiko. She beamed up at him; dressed up in her gothic Lolita fashion, her makeup applied to contradict her white skin. She came up to him with a little box in her hands wrapped with green paper, and the prints of Nightmare Before Christmas dotting it here and there.

"Tsuki-chan…" Rikou tried to form a question in his head, "Um… what… brings you here?"

"I give Rikou-kun present!" she raised the small package in her hands, her black smeared lips giving an innocent smile.

The raven haired boy looked at the gift in those white hands. It never escaped Rikou that Tsukiko was never the one to be right in the head.

"Will Rikou-kun not accept gift?"

"Oh… thanks, Tsuki-chan" he opened the door a bit wider, knowing that the girl was not raging thief or killer, so there was no danger at all. He took the package in his own hands, it weight not bothering the boy at all.

"Tsuki-chan, what is this for?" Rikou couldn't help but ask, you just don't give people gifts anytime of the year for no reason at all. "It's not my birthday and Christmas is…"

Tsukiko looked at him, her eyes wide like plates with an innocent blankness wiping her orbs.

"Rikou-kun…" she said simply, and then put a finger to her lips, "Not now, don't need to know… Rikou-kun will know later when time comes…"

A question mark formed unseen in the air beside Rikou's head as listened to the gothic girl's warning.

"Open it when it time is here" Tsukiko added.

"What do you mean when time is here? How do I know when time is here?"

"Tsukiko does not know…" she shook her head, which in turn made the two pig tails on her head follow suit. "Only Rikou-kun will know when time is here..."

The girl placed a manicured hand on Rikou's chest, "Heart will tell Rikou-kun when time is here…"

Rikou lifted a brow, "Oh, okay…" it was obvious that the boy was just playing along, nodding his head as if to agree with the girl. "I… I understand, Tsuki-chan… I think"

"Good, Tsuki-chan must go now…"

The girl, in her fishnet stockings hopped away to the exit waving a hand at Rikou's direction. Before disappearing, she gave Rikou the same warning, "Open package when time is here, ne, Rikou-kun?"

"Hai…"

When the door closed to his apartment, the boy shook his head.

Tsukiko really was a lunatic, this must be some new trend or the girl must be harboring some deeper feeling for him. He sighed; too bad he won't be up to returning them.

He placed the gift on top of the table, and plopped down on the bed.

The remnants of the radio incident still a bit fresh on his head; strange things are happening to him these days.

He pondered whether he should stick to what he has promised to Tsukiko. The girl was a smart cookie, but she did have that one loose screw on her head that creeps some of his batch mates.

The present was on the table left untouched.

There was no great temptation to opening it now.

"Whatever…"

Rikou went over to his Death Note.

As he looked at Misa, one of the few characters in the manga he's reading, he can't help but see an uncanny resemblance between her and his own weird friend.


End file.
